Ever had one of those days where you wish that you could travel to another time zone or get lost in a fantasy were all dreams come true? You will find yourself daydreaming and totally gone from the real world only to get tapped on your shoulder for someone to tell you to come back to earth. Then your daydream turns into reality and you feel like it’s nowhere to escape. Well if it hasn’t happened to you let me be the first to bear witness and testify that it has definitely happened to me. My outlet when I was a child was to write poetry to elevate my mind and make sense of my thoughts. It was therapeutic for me and once I got a pen in my hand, I entered a distant land where no one knew where it was located other than me. I find it hard to believe that once upon a time African Americans were beaten just because they were trying to teach themselves to read.How could one of God’s most precious gifts be forbidden long ago? Our ancestors protested, went to prison, and were often mistreated by being whipped and in some cases sentenced to death, and nowadays you can’t even get a lot of African Americans to crack open a book and read what’s written inside.The days and times have changed and a lot of us would rather watch a reality drama filled television series verses read a great book of poems, self -help books or even a great non-fiction or fictional tale. What a shame! The one thing that was once forbidden that our ancestors fought for is now available to us.There once was a cruel saying that was once told to me that ‘if you ever wanted to hide something top secret in what’s going on in the world place it in a book and African Americans surely wouldn’t have a clue.’ It hurt me to hear that some people thought that way. So what better way to prove them wrong other than to start making a change in the world today? Let’s do something a little different and prove the stereotypes wrong. Pick up a pamphlet, a magazine, or anything and read something. Take the time to get lost in the words that are created by many great journalists and authors.You may even find yourself escaping to a different time zone and finding relaxation through the words that are inscribed in books or magazines. We have to realize that the mind is a terrible thing to waste and realize that reading is fundamental. Let’s not let our ancestors’ efforts in opening up the doors for us to educate ourselves go in vain. There is far too much to learn, far too many places for us to travel.

Every now and again it’s ok to get lost in your own imagination. The answers to a lot of questions that reflect in our everyday life are in the content of books. Think about it and remember that the mind is a terrible thing to waste.